The San Benito County Planning Commission approved a
recommendation to the Board of Supervisors that parts of the
blueprint concerning the San Juan Oaks golf and housing resort be
approved Wednesday night.
Four out of the five commissioners gave the approval to
recommend the items, with Chairman Murrill Conley the dissenting
vote.
The San Benito County Planning Commission approved a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors that parts of the blueprint concerning the San Juan Oaks golf and housing resort be approved Wednesday night.
Four out of the five commissioners gave the approval to recommend the items, with Chairman Murrill Conley the dissenting vote.
The Commission recommended the Board approve the General Plan amendment and zone changes, the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and a statement of considerations for the project.
The Commission held back in approving the vesting tentative map because they can’t approve it until the Board first approves what the Commission sent them.
The tentative map, which the Commission can approve on its own without supervision by the Board, includes more than 200 conditions that are needed to implement the project’s development, said Commissioner Joe Tonascia.
“(The project) is kind of approved but not really,” Tonascia said. “The final conditions of approval have not been done by us yet… which is all the conditions of approval of what they need to do – what intersections, what roads, fire protection.”
The Commission’s recommended approval of the items they could vote on pleased Scott Fuller, general manager of San Juan Oaks Golf Club and the head of the project.
“It’s not finally approved, but I think you can tell from tonight that they’re going to approve,” Fuller said. “It’s just some fine tuning.”
The project would consist of building two more golf courses, a 200-room resort-hotel and 186 lots for low income housing.
The hotel could bring in $800,000 a year in revenue to the county. It would bring in more tourism, and still preserve open space and agriculture, Fuller said.
“I think there are a lot of positives with the project,” Fuller said. “We followed all of the county’s rules – we’re part of the 1-percent growth, we provide jobs, affordable housing and revenue to the county.”
The project coincides with the County’s implemented 1-percent growth cap by building the 186 homes over a 10-year period, said Commissioner Gordon Machado.
Environmental amenities encompassed in the project’s plan include installing a water treatment plant, placing 1,100 acres into a perpetual wildlife preserve and reserving 60 acres of prime agricultural land restricted only to agriculture.
“If those homes were built throughout the county they would be percolating into Mother Earth,” Machado said. “A waste treatment plant is better for the environment.”
Public safety concerns will also be better managed with a close-knit subdivision such as the project is proposing.
“Services are cheaper to provide, like fire and police,” Tonascia said, “because it’s not scattered from one end of the county to another.”
If the Board approves the items the Commission recommended, the project will then go back to the Commission for final approval of the tentative map and its conditions, Fuller said.
“(The Commission) is going to work on the conditions in the meantime, then it will be the final step,” Fuller said. “If we get that far.”
